Optical Engineering
• Open Access

A 16- and a 32-element irregular optical phased array based on silicon-on-insulator materials were fabricated. Such a device consists of an array of irregularly spaced single-mode waveguides, each of which has a specific length to give an appropriate phase retardation controllable by the wavelength. The optical beam can be steered continuously in the range of about 0 to 3 deg, corresponding to the wavelength varying from 1550.7 to 1551.9 nm.